Beach and Boat Fishing Competition to pump $1.1m into Northland

Renna Brown and Carol Welsford caught these at last year's Beach and Boat Fishing Competition. Photo / Tania Whyte

A popular fishing competition is expected to pump $1.1 million into Northland with about 1400 punters spending money while in the region.

Fishers will have their lines out for the annual Century Marine Pro Batteries Beach and Boat Fishing Competition which kicked off at 5.01am today.

Candice Lawson, who owns the competition which is based at Marsden Cove Marina, said after adding up the amount of money believed to have been spent on accommodation, travel, food, and beverage at last year's competition, she expected this year's competition would pump about $1.1m into the community.

"Even though I'm Auckland based something that is a philosphy for the Beach and Boat Fishing Competition is that a lot of the money comes from the Northland region and I try to make sure it stays up here so wherever possible I use Northland companies. "

Ms Lawson said accommodation in the One Tree Point area was booked out for the two-day competition and local stores also saw the benefits.

"I work quite closely in the lead-up to the event with the local shops here. We keep in touch and they increase their hours normally to accommodate fishermen leaving early," she said.

There are three different fishing platforms in the competition - boat, kayak and land.

Within each categories there are prizes for first, second or third for snapper, kingfish, trevally, kahawai and john dory. There are also prizes for juniors.

Ms Lawson said all of the fish weighed got sold at auction through Salty Dog with the money donated to charities.

This year the charities are Coastguard, One Tree Point School, Northland Emergency Services Trust, Million Meters - a river and stream restoration charity, and Wish for Fish - a charity to help people with disabilities get out on fishing charters.

Last year $17,500 went to charities.